Willard Mitt Romney is a man who has it all. A vast personal
fortune, a successful private career, a perfect family life, a
sharp mind, a charismatic personality, and he is very easy on the
eyes (heck, even his name has a touch of stardust about it). So
why does 64-year old Romney continue to struggle to capture the
hearts and minds of the Republican heartland?
His poll numbers have consistently hovered in the 23-25% region,
and despite the short term hiccups caused by the mini-surges of
Bachmann, Perry and now Cain, his support base seems to have held
pretty solid over the past two years. His critics charged that
his greatest strength, the ability to build a consensus from
diverging factions, is also his biggest weakness. He appears to
be intent on pleasing everyone, which lends an appearance of him
being a flip-flop on his stances. This characteristic was used in
devastating fashion in 2007/08 by Mike Huckabee, Fred Thompson
and John McCain to derail his campaign.
Perhaps a better way to look at the quarter billion dollar man is
through his own eyes, that of a financial investor. Mitt hedges
his position across a broad portfolio, which, while preventing
the chance of a mega payday, also drastically reduces the chances
of a catastrophic loss. In other words, he doesn’t believe in
putting all of his eggs in a single basket. Instead, the
grandfather of fourteen is intent on keeping hypothetical baskets
of varying sizes to hypothetically fit as wide a spectrum as
possible of the hypothetical egg demographics.
Cognizant of this perceived vulnerability, Mitt has adopted a
very organized and low-keyed strategy for this nomination cycle.
He has chosen to skip all the straw polls and remain in the
shadows of his rivals, and only making controlled media
appearances. Mitt remembers very clearly how brightly his star
shone in the 2008 race, and how quickly it faded as well. He has
revealed his hand only several times the past year, and Rick
Perry unfortunately, appears to bear the majority of those
excursions.
Former advisor to President George W. Bush, and 2008 Republican
nominee John McCain, Mark McKinnon, concurs, stating,
"Romney
is playing things very methodically and deliberatively. I think
he understands the physics of this game very well now and is
carefully calibrating his approach to 2012."
The Barack Obama juggernaut swept into office in 2008 under the
banner of change and unity, two concepts that appeared to
reinvigorate the blasé and jaded section of the electorate. He
was armed with a war chest of the likes never seen before,
accompanied by an army of politically outspoken glitterati and
aided ultimately by a waning George Bush, his predecessor.
It would be unfair though to solely credit Obama’s ascension to
the highest office in the land to merely external factors. Obama
is exceptionally intelligent, articulate and possesses an
old-school, hands-on approach to politics that harkens back to
the days of Strom Thurmond, or even, the more contemporary Rudy
Giuliani – albeit with infinitely more panache.
However, as the euphoria of his victory steadily dies down, the
50-year old has had to deal with a growing number of issues that
have taken the shine of his presidency. Questions about his much
derided health care plan, rising unemployment rates, the
direction and perceived big government approach towards the
Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), the Birther accusations
(which many felt carries an unpleasant racial undertones) and
more recently, the debt ceiling battle in the Capitol, have seen
his stock plummet.
His supporters, nevertheless, claim that most of the issues that
are weighing him down were inherited from the previous
administration, and Obama is merely cleaning up the mess. They
are quick to highlight his recent successes against Osama bin
Laden, the jobs created in the two years of his administration
that the Bush administration could not match in eight years, the
recovery of the automotive industry following the Obama-led
bailout plan two years ago – all proof of President Obama’s
successful policies.
However, the biggest question among his detractors is whether
Obama is capable of charting his own course and holding the
country to it, as his concessionary approach is gradually being
interpreted as a symbol of his indecisiveness and lack of
convictions; which under the present socio-economic conditions
and the Republican-dominated Congress, threatens to consign the
nation into a rudderless second term of his presidency.
Furthermore, the more liberal section of his support base is
increasingly dismayed by his apparent shift to the center,
perceived by many as capitulating to the conservative
onslaught.
But Obama, in the continued absence of a credible Republican
candidate, appears poised to claim his second term at the Oval
Office. The resolution of the debt ceiling fiasco, the marginal
success of his foreign policies in North Africa and the
stabilizing crude oil prices may well give Obama the final push
needed to secure his reelection.
